Here it is: The first straight Electro Swing – compilation from Austria, selected by two of Vienna´s finest Electro Swing DJs Cab Canavaral and Tony Maroni, known for their Live-DJ-project: The Swing Towers. Tony, a shown expert for great mixing techniques and superfast mash-up gigs and Cab, is not only decorated for his sax-hits-the-dancefloor-gigs, but is also part of Austria´s No.1 authentic swing band “5 in love” and label boss of Billybong records. Together, the two ElectroSwing-enthusiastics also managed to collect Electro Swing tunes from all over the world.

Surprisingly most of the songs on “Swing It!” are based on clear and proper House and Techno Beats. Compared with other compilations like Bart and Baker´s Electro Swing I-V or the consistent vocals-based on the Electro Swing Revolution-series the selection is quite a straight mingle-mangle of known and soon-to-be-famous Swing House representatives and based on around 125 bpm-producing artists. Only at the beginning will you find marked SwingHop such as Dunkelbunt´s “Augen zu und durch”, one of the first SwingHop tracks in German, the NeoSwing version of Bart & Baker´s magnificent “Big Band” or bassy-swinging tunes by the highly skilled Jenova Collective from the UK. The rest of the 26 songs which makes up the sampler are almost exclusively an entire 4-to-the-floor-bash.
For Cab Canavaral this was not necessarily a conscious step: ”It was not planned to have so many housy tracks on the compilation, but it definitely reflects the sound of our “Swing It!”-Events in Vienna.”

Nevertheless the choise is very diverse. Some of the contributions are characterised by vocals in classic verse-refrains structures, some of them are instrumental, while other artists experimented with dub-based or bassy elements. The selection is very consistent and seems well-grounded, but was mainly the artist´s choice, according to Cab: ”Many of the producers, with whom we stood in close contact with, decided themselves, what tracks they wanted to make available. We were surprised that almost every artist we requested for a track agreed to be a part of the project.”

Next to hits of best known genre-giants like Jamie Berry, Skeewiff or Bart & Baker, you will discover many undiscovered gems in the Electro Swing community like the highly active Andrea Fissore with his impelling “My summer vacation”. Noteworthy are the contributions of donJohnston, Natanael Megersa or Incontrol, in addition to the many other high-quality productions.

Fortunately and thanks to the mastering skills of Yossi and Ron, both part of the Israelian project “Segment”, which also appears on the album, most of the productions on the compilation are flawless and on a high technical level.

There will most definitely be a second edition next year, hopefully with even more artists from the flourishing Austrian Electro Swing Community.

At the moment we are working under high pressure on our next release: “SWING IT!!! Finest Eletro Swing vol.1″ is scheduled for release on October 11th.
This is a huge collection of 26 Tracks from all over the world! Electroswing is a genre with a great diversity. The producers are coming from different corners of the musical universe like, Techno, House, Minimal, Funk, Hip Hop, Drum&Bass, Dub – just to name a few.
But all of them feel a special love for Swing! The tracks were selected by Cab Canavaral and Tony Maroni. A part of the big names like Bart & Baker, Skeewiff, Grant Lazlo and [dunkelbunt] who are already well known in the scene, there are many brilliant tracks to discover, you might have never heard about before.
Many of them haven’t been released yet. We are happy to make them available for download worldwide.

We celebrate this release on October 11th with a big party in Vienna with Don Johnston feat. Leo Wood, [dunkelbunt], Kiss Me Yesterday, Ticket 2T Universe and “The Swing Towers” (www.swing-it.info)

Here is the list of all jury votes. We asked every jury member to choose their 3 favorites
for each track and rank them from 1st to 3rd. The first gets 3 points, the
second 2 points and the third one point. Than we counted the points and determined
the winning tracks.

I DANCE CHARLESTON

1.

2.

3.

Paul Hezard (Grant Lazlo)

Mendez & Muna

MuntiONFire

Discotizer

Tobi (Soundnomaden)

Vassili Gemini

MuntiONFire

Discotizer

Alex Rizzo (Skeewiff)

Discotizer

Vassili Gemini

Jester

Bart & Baker

E 39 NYC House Mix

Vassili Gemini

——–

Pat Poree

Discotizer

Mendez & Muna

Vassili Gemini

Cab Canavaral

(Klub Shwing)

Mendez & Muna

MuntiONFire

Vassili Gemini

Dominik

(Cirque de la Nuit)

Discotizer

Vassili Gemini

Mendez & Muna

Billy

(Billybong Records)

Vassili Gemini

Mendez & Muna

Jester

After
calculating the points we got this ranking:

1. Vassili Gemini 14p

2. Mendez & Muna and Discotizer 11p

3. MuntiOnFire 6p

This shows that the winner of the public voting has also convinced the jury. On the second
rank we got two remixes with equal points: Discotizer and Mendez & Muna

Why Don’t You Do
Right

1.

2.

3.

Paul Hezard (Grant Lazlo)

F3edo

TezCadey

Il Leprotto

Tobi (Soundnomaden)

TezCadey

Pika

F3edo

Alex Rizzo (Skeewiff)

Turpentine,Acetone

S-Kreama

Mr. Jeffles

Bart & Baker

Il Leprotto

S-Kreama

——–

Pat Poree

Il Leprotto

TezCadey

Mr. Jeffles

Cab Canavaral

(Klub Shwing)

F3edo

TezCadey

S-Kreama

Dominik

(Cirque de la Nuit)

TezCadey

Pika

S-Kreama

Billy Bernert
(Billybong Records)

Pika

Promoxis

TezCadey

After
calculating the points we got this ranking:

1. TezCadey 13p

2. Pika and F3edo and Il Leprotto 7p

3. S-Kreama 6p

TezCadey has got a very clear vote by the jury – nearly twice
as much points than the tracks on the second rank. Here we have 3 Tracks with
similar points!

Conclusio:

we have got
3 winning tracks in this remix contest:

Vassili Gemini won both – the jury and the public vote

S-Kreama vs. derHerfen won the public voting whereasTez Cadey is the favorite of the jury

This 3 tracks will be released for shure on Billybong Records –
Congratulation!!!

Thanks to our jury for the great work! Some members of the jury wrote also some reviews about their decisions so the artist get detailed feedback for their work.

here the comments:

Alex Rizzo (Skeewiff):

I DANCE CHARLESTON

It was very difficult just choosing three to be perfectly honest, because there were so many absolute corkers. I could have done with 5 Votes as I really thought there were that many GREAT remixes! In the end I had to narrow it down to the three remixes that were impossible to resist. The ones that made me want to get up and dance every time.. So I went with:

Discotizer’s Latin Swing – A great & groovy production. Irresistible beats and a great feeling that set it apart from all of the other remixes. Spine tingling good time party beats! Absolutely love the tribal percussion and guitar solo sections. Brilliant!

Vassili Gemini – I love that this puppy just builds and builds… and then builds some more. People will literallly be exploding by the end! Call me old fashioned, but thats how I love ‘em. Layer upon layer of intricate groove building up to a magical finale. Great work!

Jester’s me too – The final choice was almost impossible. Although I loved the beats of the Misa Thing remix, with the baritone sax and guitars providing the groove throughout and the polished swing of the Mendez & Muna remix it was Jester’s absolutely bonkers “me too” remix that got my final vote. I love the Fiiter and reverb Intro, the slick ride patterns and the kung fu chops.. and by the time the bonkers vocal and chopped up sax come in, your hooked into the trance like pottiness of it all. That bass line just bubbles along and the builds are awesome. A completely different take on the track too. I think it helps to be slightly disturbed to fully appreciate this remix.

WHY DON’T YOU DO RIGHT:

An utterly timeless song, a lovely vocal performance and a beautiful backing track means that this track should’ve been a breeze to remix & yet again, even though a few missed the point, there were many strong mixes to consider. The standout mixes for me were the following:

Turpentine, Acetone and Benzene – Insane. That is all. Utterly hatstand. Mad as a bicycle. Lusciously psychedelic. Probably not that handy in a club (unless you want to frighten people) but as a piece of music its stunning. Who are these guys? And can you get me some of the stuff they smoke? Brilliant mix. Take a bow crazy fellas. Stand out Mix.

S-Kreama Vs Der Herfen Remix – Chopped chords and vocals interspersed with sax licks all on a bed of Slamming in your face beats. What’s not to like? I particularly like the breakdown to just sax and finger snaps slowly building back up to a massive finale. Awesome.

Mr Jeffles – Smooth and organic, yet electronic and glitchy. What I liked about it was that it is completely respectful to the original, and yet offers a really interesting and groovy electronic re-groove which provides plenty of motion yet never oversteps the mark and detracts from the melody. Nicely done.

———————————————————————————————————————————–

Paul Hezard ( Grant Lazlo)

Hey!!
I’ve just listened to all the remixes.
there’s lot of good work I guess smile
Sometimes it’s been hard to chose but I’ve tried to do so.
So for both tracks I’ve made my “top 3″
If I only got one choice to make, take the number one for each track.

1- F3edo !!!!!!!!!
2- Tez Cadey (I hesitated a long time to know if I had to make this one number one..)
3 ex-aequo - IL LEPROTTO (this could have been even number 1 because it’s very well produced but I would have liked it to sound more warm, because it’s a jazz remix contest..)
3 ex-aequo – Mr Jeffles

The drumarrangment is powerfull and the mixdown is very balanced! I like the kind he edits the brass, for me its the most musical and thoughtful track and so its may favorite.

2. Vassilli Gemini:

Nice clubby arrangment and awesome drops. Also very musical and it comes with a great mixdown! He knows his craft and i will play it because i know it will move asses!

3. Mendez and Muna:

Here i like the way they edit the voices specially. Complete different to the other edits! They know how to doe music so thats my Number 3.

Why don´t ya:

1. Tez Cadey:

I love that microsampling style and for me its the best interpretation of this song because it has power and also a lot of feeling (like the original) but it sounds complete different.

2. Pika:

Very musical, good mixdown and a lot of feeling!! Bombin Drops and great editet Synths! Very energetic and pushin edit.

3. S Kreama:

Good balanced mix with a lot of pressure and style, makes me move! Specially like the break with the Sax Solo!

————————————————————————————————————-

Cab Canavaral (Composer/Producer of the originals)

I want to say “thank you” to all remixers who spent their time, energy and musical inspiration to create these remixes. I hope you all had fun and enjoyed to work with the provided material. In my opinion the most important thing for an artist taking part in a remix contest, is not to win the price but to get feedback for his work. We asked our jury members not only to choose the three favorites for each track but also to give a short review.

I created both tracks – so it’s no question that I want to give my feedback to all remixes.

Some words about the original “I dance Charleston” : The structure of the song is a classic AABA form of 32 bars like most songs in jazz. The harmonic structure of the “A-Parts” is mainly based on the root key (Eb). The “B-Part” also called “bridge” is 8 bars long and not in the key of Eb. This has caused some problems to several remixes. The melody of the bridge doesn’t work properly over the baseline or harmonies of the A-Parts!

Discotizer’s Latin Swing:

I like the latin rhythm of this version! It brings back the memories of a very nice summer. very well produced. The only point I have to complainis the use of the bridge over the baseline of the main hook. the harmonies don’t fit well with the melody, but I’ve to admit here it’s not so disturbing as in other remixes.

E39 NYC House Mix:

This also a very well produced remix. The structure of the original was kept completly – therefore there are also some slight harmonical problems when it comes to the bridges. I like the breakdown in the middle. The added synth works quite well on the main parts but not on the bridge – less would have been more!

Metropolitan Bedroom Ensemble:

Nice cutting and rearranging of the original material. The baseline is very indifferent, so there are no problems with the harmonies of the different parts. On the other side there is a lack of harmonical grounding – no push from the bass. I like the breaks and glitchy effects!

Misa Thing Remix:

Very nice somehow ska like beginning. I like the jumpy rhythm very much. I think it will work fine in a club. The bariton sax line works very well with the beats. Funny the coughing sample (was it in the original?)

Vassili Gemini Remix

Great Remix! I like the sound, the musicality, the build ups, the breaks, the energy! This could be a real burner on the dancefloor! This is definitely one of my favorites!

Max Hizzle Remix

This Remix has quite a lot of good ideas – but somehow it isn’t as groovy as I had expected: Maybe the bassline, the beats and the sax riff don’t fit exactly. also the clarinet solo seems to be slightly out of time and out of tune.

Mr Jeffles Remix

This Remix is very close to the original – it ‘s based on the original song structure, therefore it has no harmonical problems at all. It’s faster as the original and the beats work fine! I like it!!!

Mendez Muna Remix:

Great start – I like the very musical cutting and rearranging of the guitar riff, brass and scat samples. The proper use of the right baseline under the bridge-part avoids harmonic problems. great beat programming. Also one of my favorites!

Mangroove Brothers Remix

While listening to this remix I was wondering what happened here? There is a very nice played additional trombone but the whole remix sounds somehow rhythmically and harmonically chaotic. the single parts sound all well but it doesn’t fit together!?! It seems to me that as if a very nice remix fell down on the floor, broke into pieces and was glued together without taking care about rhythmic and harmonic structures!

Frederic Caihooligan & Giovanni Simoni Remix

I like the gypsyswing approach of this remix. This remix concentrates on the guitar work and the voice with nice cutting and rearranging of the vocal parts – all in all quite minimalistic but nice!

Muntionfire Remix

This is an outstanding remix – cuts and splits, sampling at it’s best. a great baseline , organ and jumpy beats. I think this will work great in clubs! this is also one of my favorite remixes

Jesters me too remix:

could be a nice remix, but it causes some troubles in the (sub) bass frequencies. There is a very deep, indifferent noise all over the track which is annoying. The cutted sax and clarinet lines are a bit strange or for my taste to abstract.

Sava Boric Remix:

I’m no expert in techno music. I like the idea of this track but the harmonies and rhythms of the original material don’t fit right into the technoid beats – somehow I got the impression to listen to two different tracks played at the same time.

due to lack of time the reviews of the Why Don’t You Do Right -Remixes will follow shortly…